Day 352: Suzanne Ducharme
“I really do encourage people to be their most authentic self, even though the transformation can be pinchy at times. What’s waiting on the other side is so much better than you could even imagine, than you could even visualize, and I just would hope that people would feel empowered enough to be their best self and their most authentic self.”
.
.
.
Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Suzanne, for agreeing to be part of the Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Suzanne Ducharme: Sure. My name is Suzanne Ducharme, and I am the owner of Pathways to Healing and also South Shore Speech Pathology Partners.
Toni: Well, Suzanne, when you think about inspiration, who do you think you inspire, and how does that happen?
Suzanne: Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the children that I work with. My primary training is as a pediatric speech language pathologist, so I work with kids who have difficulty learning to communicate and learning to swallow, and I’ve … in all the years that I’ve been working with kids and their families, I really think this is an area where I like to think, anyway, that I inspire people – both the kids that I work with in terms of gently coaxing them out of their world of silence and into connection with their families, and I hope that I also can inspire their parents to see the potential in their kids and to see the beauty in their kids, even when there are some difficulties there.
Beyond that, I like to think that I am able to inspire my friends and my colleagues. Professionally, I have done a lot of leadership kinds of things and tried to inspire the people in my profession to step up to take on volunteer work to advocate for the professions and for consumers, so I like to think that this is kind of a broad area for me.
Toni: Tell me what happens – give me an example of a transaction that occurs between you and the people that you work with.
Suzanne: Well, I can give you one from a session that I had this morning. I have a little boy that I’m working with who is about 18 months old who has just been diagnosed with autism. As you might imagine, his family is going through some very difficult emotional navigation right now. They’re really just trying to come to terms with the diagnosis, and they’re trying to understand their little boy, and they’re trying to help him as best that they can.
He came in this morning and he used three new signs that he had never used before today, and I’ve only been seeing him for a few weeks, but he’s already showing … every day he’s showing mom and dad new skills. And it’s … mom was crying, I was crying. It’s very powerful to be part of someone’s life like that. This is their child.
Toni: And it sounds as though you really are in that space with them when they’re in front of you.
Suzanne: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
Toni: How do you think that the work that you do – or just you in general – how do you help other people explore their own potential?
Suzanne: Well, I think in terms of my professional practice, whether it’s the speech pathology work that I do … or I also do craniosacral therapy and Reiki and other kinds of healing energy therapies – and I’m an intuitive as well – so on a professional level when I’m interacting with someone as a client, I’m basically using all of the tools that I have in my toolbox. At any given moment any one of them can come into play as I basically am here to help people, to partner with them, to coach them to reach their goals.
So whether it’s an adult who’s come for pain management or for stress relief or emotional support, intuitive guidance, whatever it is, I’m here to be with them in that space as they sort of find their way through that. With the children that I work with, obviously I am here to bring all of my clinical knowledge to bear on their particular situation to help them be as connected to the world as they can be.
On a personal level, I guess I would say that I sort of go by example, because my … the last five or six years of my life have been a complete transformational journey for me. So this isn’t just something that I’m preaching. This is something that I practice on a daily basis. I’m still going through my own physical, emotional, mental, spiritual change all the time. I hear from my friends all the time that that is sort of an example for them, that they know it’s okay to go into change, it’s okay to go into those places where you don’t really want to go, because look at what can happen when you do that. Look at the transformation that can happen when you do that.
Toni: Can you define for me what intuitive guidance means?
Suzanne: Well, I don’t define myself as a psychic. I don’t like that word. I really prefer to use the word intuitive. So when I talk about intuitive guidance and support, I’m there basically to connect people – if they choose to see me for that – with their higher self and with whatever they define as Source. It could be God, Goddess, whatever. I refer to it as Source.
So my job is not really to say anything about the future. I don’t predict the future. I’m there to basically connect them with their higher self and the angelic realm to find out what is the best avenue to take right now – what kind of insight can I give that will help them to understand whatever is challenging them right now, and to move forward with ease and with grace and with clarity so that they can handle whatever is in front of them.
Toni: Well thank you for defining that. I think it’s important, based on the work that you do, because there’s many different definitions of that, and I wanted to make sure that we knew what yours was.
Let me ask you something, Suzanne. What inspires you?
Suzanne: Oh, boy. Well, definitely everyone that I work with, especially the kids that I work with really inspire me because they just … they don’t know that they’re impaired most of the time, and they still have joy and they still have laughter, and they still have discovery, and they still have curiosity, no matter what their physical or cognitive or communicative challenges are.
I think that is such an important message, because I think sometimes we get really caught up in telling our story and in whatever our issues are that we can gloss over the things that are abundant and prosperous and beautiful in our lives. So absolutely, that’s a primary one for me.
I certainly have had a wealth of mentors in my life personally and professionally who have really inspired me to stretch, to keep striving, to keep developing more skills, to be comfortable with creating the business that I have created, which is sort of unlike what anybody else is doing. There are people who do hands-on healing, there are people who do speech pathology, but not very many people who do both. There are people who are intuitives or define themselves that way, but they don’t necessarily blend it in with an integrated practice, a hands-on practice.
So I think my mentors have really given me the courage to step out boldly and create something that isn’t following someone else’s pattern. And certainly my friends and the people that I have drawn to me – my chosen family, you might say – that are around me, people of like mind who really are a source of support. And then absolutely my parents who I’ve watched my entire life really be an example of living a life of service, so they really have always inspired me.
Toni: You mentioned that you are walking the talk yourself as far as going through transformation, and that’s been a very powerful message through the Get Inspired! Project. We’re coming into the end of the first year of the Project, and really a lot of people have … I refer back to the quote that “we teach what we need to learn” and that seems to be a running theme throughout the Project.
So for those that are listening to you or reading your transcript, was there a defining moment for you that you said, “There’s a stake in the ground, and I need to walk differently. I need to walk down a different path.” Or was it an evolution for you?
Suzanne: It was really both for me. I mean, I can certainly point to a couple of really pivotal moments when I left a comfortable job in an outpatient facility on the management track and just took a leap of faith and went into private practice without a practice –built something from nothing 10 years ago. That was a pivotal moment.
When I realized that my marriage was ending and that I was going to be really completely redefining my identity from the inside out. There are definitely some very pivotal moments, but it also has sort of evolved in a very organic kind of way. I couldn’t have possibly scripted this kind of transformation. So it’s sort of like a crazy rollercoaster ride where you just sort of buckle up and go for it and hope that you have the resources and the support that you need to kind of get through whatever comes.
I just turned 40 a few weeks ago, and I feel just exhilarated by where I’m at right now in my life and what has happened for me in the past five years. So I really do encourage people to be their most authentic self, even though the transformation can be pinchy at times. What’s waiting on the other side is so much better than you could even imagine, than you could even visualize, and I just would hope that people would feel empowered enough to be their best self and their most authentic self.
Toni: What are you doing now to explore your own potential?
Suzanne: Well, I definitely define myself as a seeker, so I am a lifelong learner, and I am always on the edge of developing the next tool in my toolbox or the next piece of my puzzle. So for me, there’s new modalities that I’m learning, and I’m always … I’m a voracious reader, and I like to really kind of stay on top of my knowledge base.
So that’s one way that I definitely explore the potential, but I also continue on this transformational journey that I’m on, so I’m still experiencing healing on all levels. I really try to make the time every month if not every week to go and do my own work where I can get on the table instead of being the one who’s always providing the service.
And I definitely like to explore things by connecting with people in my support network who are of like mind and who push and challenge and yet love and support at the same time. So it’s definitely something that I’m doing all the time. It’s an integrated part of me.
Toni: It’s really fascinating and powerful how you speak a lot about self-care and that in order for you to serve, you have to take care of yourself first.
Suzanne: Sure.
Toni: And that’s not something that people do on a regular basis, so that message … it came across loud and clear for me in this, is to do the work that you do and to be as successful as you are, you also had to remember that you had to take care of yourself.
Suzanne: And it was a lesson hard learned. It was a lesson hard learned for me, because I think for those who are drawn to helping professions and those who are nurturers by nature, we tend to just sort of give and give and give until there’s less than nothing left in the well. And then we crash. Oftentimes, healers and light workers will develop significant illnesses or those “ah-ha” moments where they suddenly realize, “Hey, I’m just as important.”
I am lucky that I have not had anything catastrophic or traumatic happen to me. I was able to get the message in a different kind of way and have found that my practice, my skills, my everything … the energy that moves through me is more clear, more pure. It’s of a higher vibration, and I’m getting results like I’ve never gotten in all my years of practice with everything.
So it’s really about … in a society where everything is about results and everything is very outcome driven, my outcomes are better. My results are better. I am giving more value by taking really good care of myself and keeping that channel clear.
Toni: What great advice to leave the interview with, Suzanne. You can hear it – the sense of determination, the learning that you had to go through. I love that as the value that you’ve left as well in the interview. Thank you so much for taking your time to be part of the Get Inspired! Project, and we will have, of course, your website at the bottom of the transcript. And for being here today, Suzanne, we cannot thank you enough.
Suzanne: Oh sure, thanks for the opportunity.
Toni: Take care.
___________________________________________________________
For more information about Suzanne Ducharme: www.yourpathwaystohealing.com
.
Post Comment